Municipality of Lac-des-Plages, Quebec.
A weathered timber house set between forest and lake, one that steps back to let the landscape speak.
Located in the municipality of Lac-des-Plages, on an estate where the forest runs right down to the water, Espace Sauvage offers a way of inhabiting nature without disrupting it. Here, Dupont Blouin designed a compact two-storey dwelling intended for short-term rental. Conceived as a contemporary refuge, it is simple in form, precise in gesture, efficient in layout, and entirely turned toward its natural setting.
The silhouette borrows the archetype of the gabled house and adapts to light, views and function. On the north side, the light grey metal roof slopes down, while to the south it rises to shelter the bedrooms. The horizontal cedar cladding was harvested from the forest itself. Left to weather, it is already turning grey and will keep softening season after season. The openings direct views outward and maximize natural light inside: a vertical slot along the stair, glazed corners, ribbon windows. Each one answers a precise frame from within.
Here, windows are conceived as frames. In the living room, a long ribbon window aligns with the back of the sofa, framing the mullein and tall grasses of the understorey at the eye level of whoever settles in. In the kitchen and dining area, cabinets give way to large windows set among the conifers. Throughout, the depth of each wall is lined in birch, like a frame around every picture.
A Baltic birch plywood wall lines the ground-floor living space. In turn, it wraps the coat rack, storage, kitchen, bookshelf, media unit and staircase. By gathering these functions together, it brings the kitchen, dining and living areas into a single room, flowing across a heated polished concrete slab that extends naturally toward the deck and the lake. In the vestibule, a wooden slatted screen holds coats and towels after a swim.
Upstairs, three bedrooms and a bathroom tuck beneath the slopes of the roof, their ceilings following its geometry. The beds rest on birch platforms fitted with drawers, extended by a few steps up to a window seat: a small lookout over the treetops, with an unobstructed view of the starry sky. A square window above a floating desk frames the lake like a postcard. In the bathroom, sage-green porcelain tile and a floating birch vanity carry the forest's palette indoors.
Polished concrete, birch, porcelain, cedar: the palette is deliberately restrained, and chosen to last. Because the chalet welcomes a steady succession of holidaymakers, every surface must withstand repeated use, be easy to maintain and age gracefully. Here, durability is a requirement of the programme as much as a value.
Outside, the project continues seamlessly: a timber deck, an outdoor fireplace, a hot tub nestled among the ferns, and a path winding down to the dock.
Understated without being austere, warm without being rustic, the Espace Sauvage chalet embodies Dupont Blouin's intentional approach: every element has its reason for being, and the architecture serves, above all, to help us see and feel the place that holds it.
Architecture & design: Dupont Blouin
Photography: Olivier Blouin
Location: Lac-des-Plages, Quebec
